"This is what you'll need to carry out your mission."
Helmut Zemo suddenly felt a weight in his hand. Looking down, he found a briefcase there. The bizarre phenomenon gave him a start. Just as he raised his head to ask a question, a wave of damp air carrying the smell of mud rushed toward him. The harsh light made it nearly impossible to open his eyes. In a daze, the sounds of cars and people surged around him like a tide. When he forced his eyes open, he found himself sitting on a bench, with a broad river flowing slowly before him. One moment ago, he had been inside a lightless tent that was very likely somewhere in Latveria, where the air had been thick with the sweet scent of tea and honey and the cold metallic smell of Power Armor. The next moment, he was sitting on a park bench as cars and pedestrians drifted past beneath the shade behind him.
The abrupt change of scenery sent a chill through his entire body. His heart pounded wildly, and his nostrils were filled with the smell of ionized air.
Had he been injected with an anesthetic and transported here? Or had he somehow forgotten what had happened shortly before? Had it been an injected anesthetic or an inhaled one? What drug could make him lose memories from a specific period of time? How had they brought him here without arousing suspicion?
He kept listing every possibility in his mind, only to dismiss them just as quickly.
He was sitting here whole and intact. There was no numbness in his extremities, his blood sugar was normal, and his body temperature was normal. That meant he had not been transported here after being anesthetized. He had no idea what had happened.